As per a May 22, 2025 ruling by a federal judge, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) is temporarily barred from carrying out an executive order to shut down the agency and must reinstate employees who were fired as part of a mass reduction in force in March. A preliminary injunction in State of New York v. McMahon, U.S. District Judge ordered that the USDE be “restored to the status quo” prior to the day President Donald Trump office in January.

According to the judge, the USDE’s subsequent actions have shown no evidence that its workforce reductions have improved efficiency or that the agency is making progress in working with Congress to close the department. The judge also stated that, “A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all. This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Department’s employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself.”

The preliminary injunction requires the agency to submit a report to the court within 72 hours of the order, outlining all the steps it is taking to comply, and to do so “every week thereafter until the Department is restored to the status quo prior to January 20, 2025.”

USDE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madi Biedermann said the USDE will challenge the ruling “on an emergency basis.” What emergency is being referenced was not specifically stated.

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